Part of the Food Safety Control track. Lesson 5 of 10.
Where in the shift: on a schedule.
Prerequisites: Modules 2, 4.
The sequence
Calibrate every instrument on a schedule.
Log it.
Cross-check two instruments against each other.
And keep the records the authority requires.
The decisions
Whether to trust a reading. A thermometer drifts with use, impact, and temperature cycling — and a drifted probe means every temperature record in the building is unverified, and all of them looked fine.
Which makes calibration upstream of every other control in this track.
And whether a log means anything. A calibration that was not recorded did not happen as far as anyone can prove.
What you are reading
The instrument against a known reference.
And two instruments against each other — disagreement means at least one is wrong and you do not yet know which.
What goes wrong here
Never calibrated. Every record unverified.
Calibrated and unlogged.
Verification
Check every thermometer in the building today against a reference. Then set a schedule.
The boundary
Record-keeping requirements are set by the local health authority.